Training, monitoring & evaluation part 2: Measuring the impact of a community programme

Pro Sport Development has implemented new measures into their monitoring and evaluation system, to assist in assessing the impact of its community sports programme in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

Pro Sport Development has been running a community sport programme since September 2015 with underprivileged children from various slums in Bhubaneswar, Odisha (DNA news article). The programme has grown from working with 75 to 543 children via eight centres. Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is a key part of the programme, as it allows us to assess the effectiveness of programme delivery, along with measuring the impact it is having on children.

Previously, the M&E system focused mostly towards ensuring the effectiveness of programme delivery and evaluating sessions and coaches. This helped to provide a basic structure for the growth of the programme. Now that the programme has grown, the way it is monitored and evaluated has evolved so that a system is in place to observe the impact the programme is having on the children in three key areas of their holistic development: physical health and well-being, social and emotional development and cognitive development.

To measure the impact of the programme on the children, questionnaires have been introduced and case studies and interviews have been enhanced. Specific questionnaires were designed for the children and their school teachers, to gauge the impact of the programme from the perspective of its main stakeholders. Utilizing these questionnaires, a baseline survey was conducted at the start of the new academic year with all the children and teachers of the programme. A survey will be carried out again mid-way through the year and at the end of the academic year, as an endline survey. This will provide data from two perspectives on how the programme is impacting the children. Case studies and interviews will also be utilized to get feedback from various stakeholders of the programme on the impact of the programme in specific developmental areas. It is important to involve different stakeholders of the programme including children, teachers, parents and local community members when conducting these measurements, as it helps to assess the depth and breadth of the impact on the communities the programme works in.

As part of the implementation of these measurements, our coaches who deliver the programme participated in a two day training focusing on their role within the monitoring & evaluation framework of the programme. The aim of this course was to educate the coaches on the new structure and train them in their roles regarding the implementation of the questionnaires, case studies and interviews. This involved practical sessions on how to collect the information in a sensitive and unbiased manner, as well as inputting the information into excel data sheets.

Through the implementation of this updated monitoring & evaluation structure, we envision to highlight the impact the programme is having on the children and areas where the programme can focus on to further aid in the holistic development of the children.